The role of morphological processing in reading fluency in the second language

The Role of Morphological Processing in Reading Fluency in the Second Language The present study investigates a potential link between morphological processing patterns and reading fluency in second language (L2) English. To this end, the L2 processing of derivational morphology is examined in first language (L1) Turkish-speaking learners of L2 English (i.e., Turkish EFL learners). More specifically, the online processing of derived words both in L1 Turkish and L2 English was examined via two masked priming lexical decision experiments. The target derivational suffixes were –lI and –sIz in Turkish and –ful and –less in English. The reaction times (RTs) obtained through two masked priming tasks were compared within two groups of Turkish EFL learners who had pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate proficiency levels. A group of English native speakers also participated in the study as a control group. L2 English learners' L1 Turkish processing patterns were examined to understand whether L1 processing patterns were also applied to L2 processing. Findings revealed that L2 English learners demonstrated full priming effects in processing of both L1 Turkish and L2 English derivational morphology. In other words, L2 learners employed decomposition in accessing derived words. No significant differences were found between pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate-level L2 participants in processing English and Turkish multimorphemic words. On the other hand, native speakers of English showed repetition priming while processing derived words in their L1 English. In other words, accessing bare target forms was facilitated only after identical primes. As for reading fluency, native English speakers outperformed both L2 groups. Nevertheless, the reading fluency scores and the morphological processing patterns did not reveal any correlation except for the priming pattern for the derivational suffix –ful in the pre-intermediate group. This suggests that morphological processing pattern may not have a direct effect on reading fluency. The findings of the study also imply that the L2 proficiency level does not lead to any qualitative differences in L2 learners' morphological processing patterns. The full priming pattern (i.e. decompositional processing route) observed in the learners' L1 Turkish and L2 English could be attributed to the agglutinative morphology of Turkish. In other words, L2 learners may employ decompositional route in the L2 due to the morphological system in their L1 Turkish, suggesting L1 influence on L2 processing. The role of early L2 English exposure and morphological awareness raising in morphological processing as well as in reading fluency should be investigated in future studies. Key Words: Morphological processing, second language learning, masked priming, visual lexical decision, reading fluency.